GermanFafian

Wow, minus a missing logo, you wouldn’t know it from a real Ibanez! I always liked them and the color choice is killer. Was it hard polishing inside that money claw? Always wondered about that!

I don't know about him but I just finished painting and polishing one of those and had a tough time polishing the darned monkey grip Must be my lack of experience though

Yes...use a drill bit the same size of the screw holes to clean ot the holes before you drive in the screw(use the bit by hand,not in a drill.)

I'll do that! Thanks a lot.

I still have problems thought as the lacquer seems to have problems bonding to the guitar body. This is driving me nuts. I'm off to read all painting/finish posts as I possibly can but I have 2 more fret dressings to do today before calling it quits here at the shop

Thanks again for the advice.

OK. So I have this problem and need some advice if possible.

I have painted a couple bodies with Nitro and every time I start screwing the pickguard, pick-ups and other hardware the lacquer starts chipping and falling apart around the edges of the screw hole. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

I also have been arguing with a friend about the importance of getting the whole instrument together and see if everything fits perfectly before painting, but he argues that it is the same as the chipping occurs anyway. I just remember from my aficionado car repair days that any pieces had to be tested in their place before painting.

Some one also told me it might be the lacquer´s fault as most luthiers here use imported lacquers instead of the national (spanish) brands, but lacquer is lacquer. Isn't it?

Thanks a lot for any help/advice

Germ

Hello there Mr. Hiscock I know this thread is a few months old but have you ever thought about getting your book in High Res PDF format and selling it directly from a web site? It would generate a lot more direct profit as there would not be any production costs.

On the other hand it would make it easier to illegally distribute it over the web too but it is an option many people are using nowadays. I bought your book not too long ago and it truly was a blessing as at 40 yrs old I just started working in a custom guitar /repair shop and I also started building a guitar for my son and this knowledge is hard to come by.

Thanks for your dedication and efforts in teaching us all . If you ever drop by Madrid, Spain the BarBQ and wine are on me

It all depends on how quickly the sandpaper loads, because once it loads then it ceases to cut properly.

If you have a compressor or something to blow the dust out of the sandpaper (frequently....), then I think you can dry sand with 400. If not, then I would wet sand with a dilute soapy water solution (use hand soap, not dish soap) and wipe the body and rinse the sandpaper frequently.

The soap is what is called a "surfactant" which means it keeps stuff from sticking to surfaces, so this helps keep the sandpaper from clogging up.

Sorry to interrupt but somewhere (I forgot where) I read you should not use soap while wet sanding as it would damage the next applied layers of lacquer. Is this true or not?

I turned 40 this last august and I am loving every minute of it.

Been married for 16 yrs. Have a 12 yrs old gothic-dressing daughter and a crazy 2 yrs old son but both of them trip our friends out when they go to sleep listening to The Beatles and Pink Floyd

After I turned 30 I finally learned that the best times of my life are the "right here and right now"

I link from my sig but here it is anyway.

Kaos Axiom

All music still free under Creative Commons. It is mostly electronic old school in the vein of Mr Oldfield/Jarre but I write and arrange with my guitar.

With that head I would go for the Warlock design

Using Burmese Teak these days, does not sound good to me.

The tragedies of our days. If we keep going this fast we are gonna have to start making guitars out of plastic.

What about using a non-obtrusive straight mahogany body?

It would give you a nice sound and would not fight for attention with the fretboard.

Hi there Drak.

The top I bought is this one

It has a very nice small burl look to it and thought that maybe a soft honey burst would do, but not too sure yet. I still have time though as I am finishing my first project. A swamp ash electric guitar for my 3 yrs old son

I have learned so much from this forum in the last couple months that I have been handed all the paint jobs for the guitar shop I work at. Funny how an old dog (40 yrs old and computer/Cisco head by tyraining) can learn new tricks.

Hello Mr Drak;

Did you ever finished this body? I just bought a top similar to yours except it is a burly black poplar and I'm still deciding how to finish it up.

BTW. Great finishing posts. I am learning bunchs from them

No one? :

OK. I have two questions for all the finish gurus here.

I am making my first solo project which will be an Ash bodied guitar for my son. And I want to finish it in some sort of reddish burst. More like a cherry burst or so, but I have no idea on how to go with filling the grain and what technique would be best. I thought of dying the body, but Ash is so porous that I have no idea if it would work.

The body is slowly taking shape as I work on it in my free time from the shop and I am doing it all by hand with surforms and such.

Here is a pic of it:

My other question is: I am slowly buying stock for my next project which will hopefully start by Christmas or so. I bought this beautiful Poplar top today and was wondering what would be the best way to go about finishing it. I want it to be finished in a soft honey tone over a reddish mahogany semi-hollow body, The problem is that it has a few deep holes in the surface around the knots from the roots and stuff. How do I fill these? and what would you do with it if it was to be placed on your guitar? I might find suggestions interesting for my own project.

A pic of the top;

Thanks for any help/suggestions

Germ

Awesome!

A very warm welcome from Noob to Noob

I'm in the middle of my first project. I have read the books and threads everyone here recommends and I can tell you. They will give you a very solid foundation for your own fun glitches like mine.

Keep us informed of your progress. I will post pics of my first neck-thru Tele project soon.

Take care.

We did a similar job at the shop not too long ago on an Ibanez and it is a cool look. For what I hear it is not too bad unless your guitar is outside and the Aluminum gets too cold

Good job and let us see finished work

Dude! Somehow I never got the message that you had replied to this post. Hence the delay with my answer.

I have been asking my cousin in Valencia who runs Aserradero Girardot and he could not give me any solution to the Maple dilemma. There has to be some clear/blonde figured wood to work with, but I just can't seem to find any and Italo only gives me Pine family options. Those of course are out of the question.

I wish I was of more help. Maybe some clear Saman logs could do. I have no idea.

Zapatero!!! So that's the name of the reddish striped wood? I remember some beautiful woodworks from the stores in Caripe and "Cuevas de Guacharo".

Best of luck and Give my regards to "La república independiente del Zulia"

Later.

Chaaaaaaaaaamooooo! Que bien se ven esas niñas!

That PRS with a Saman top is excelent. I had never seen Saman used in instrument building, but I know it looks great when oiled. Great job.

Saludos.

i don't know where to get an S or SZ, but i do know where to get a JS.. its almost the same as an S aside from the radius.. alternatively, you could use a regular RG and modify the horns to get the basic shape of an S.. anyway, heres a link to the JS..

thanks for those. I wanted to use an S styled body for my first project and I was looking around while I came across this post.

I will adapt them to a neck-thru and see what comes out.

Thanks again

And...............

Our second prototype.

Delivered yesterday

Another beautifully sounding/playing guitar.

Later.

For starters, Amazon.co.uk carries it, and any book shop should be able to order it for you. There's always Rockinger.com, and you may want to simply ask Madinter.com to add it to their webshop; they certainly should carry it if they don't yet.

Thanks for the reply. Somehow an early query in Amazon didn't show any results, but I tried again and it came up so I ordered it right away. It should be here by Thrusday

Thanks.

I've got to disagree

That's one of the design features that really attracted me to Dingwall: http://www.dingwallguitars.com/images/Afte...ody_front_e.jpg

Great job!

That is one sweet looking bass there!

Thanks for the comment.

I thought this would be a good place to ask for this since this book is a tool in itself

I have been looking around the web to buy Melvin Hiscock's (man what a last name!!!) guitar building book, but only found it in 2 american shops. I live in Spain and shipping gets too expensive if I want to get it from Warmoth which is where I found it.

Any one knows of a web shop in Europe where I can buy it? Amazon does not carry it so I am out of luck with that.

Any help/option would be greatly appreciated.

Later

For my Tru-Oil finish I wetsanded using the micromesh finishing abrasives soaked in a mixture of water and Murphy's Oil soap. I believe it was in the instructions that came with the micro mesh that said to do that, I soaked the abrasives overnight, then wetsanded in the morning. It turned out great, left if feeling perfectly smooth and shiny. After the wetsanding I wiped on 2 very very thin coats of tru-oil which needed no more sanding. The end result to me is more like a painted finish than an oil finish.

Oh, I did use steel wool in between every few coats for a while until I built up enough of the oil to do the wetsanding.

There is just too much info in this forum !!!!!!

How am I supposed to soak it all in before I start my own project? I already ordered my copy of Melvin's book as it seems the logical way.

I never thought that an oil finish could look so shiny and sharp. Great looking bass Manquesa. Now I have to figure out what they call tru-oil here in Spain

Later.